Friends Carol Marlin and Margaret “Maggie” Ginn shared what would become their last meal together in Ginn’s home in Cobb County, Georgia, before both women were brutally murdered. This shocking crime left a community in despair and baffled investigators for years.
It wasn’t until a decade later, with the tragic death of Kasi Peek, that the mystery began to unravel. Her passing revealed the unsuspected presence of what a family member termed as a “monster” hiding in plain sight.
In a heart-wrenching interview with Oxygen’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, Maggie’s granddaughter, Layla Bryant, expressed the family’s disbelief, stating, “It was so unbelievable that there is that kind of evil out there.” The revelation rocked the family and community to their core.
How Did John Peek and Kasi Peek Meet?
Unaware of the dark past surrounding Carol and Maggie, Kasi first encountered the seemingly charming software engineer John Peek at a gathering at her condo. He quickly captured Kasi’s heart through a series of romantic gestures and endearing love notes.
What began as a whirlwind romance soon led to a life together when the couple married within months of meeting. They embarked on their new journey in a large dream house outside Atlanta, never suspecting the sinister connection that lingered in their midst.
But after John accepted a job with Habitat for Humanity and relocated part-time to Americus, Georgia, the relationship began to falter—especially after Kasi began to suspect that John was having an affair.
Furious, she moved out and returned to her condo in April 2005. Yet, Kasi couldn’t resist John’s charm and the pair agreed to try to work it out.
What Happened to Kasi Peek?
Everything was going well until John called 911 in October 2005 to report that he’d just discovered Kasi inside her condo.
“I just found my wife dead,” a crying John told a dispatcher. “Please send somebody. Please.”
Officers arrived within minutes and discovered the condo had been ransacked, with items strewn across the floor. Kasi was lying in a pool of blood in her bed, her glasses still sitting askew on her face and the tv playing. The 44-year-old had been shot to death.
“[Her] eyes were open,” Smyrna Police Detective Ron Waddell recalled of the“fear” still etched on her face. “It actually looked like she was still looking at somebody that was in the room.”
John told investigators he and Kasi were still living apart but “probably getting back together” at the time of the murder, adding that he had last spoken to his wife around 4 p.m. the day before as she was heading out to meet a friend.
John said he’d gone to check on his wife after someone called and told him they’d found Kasi’s purse and cell phone abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby apartment complex.
“I called her name. Uh I heard the television on,” he told detectives of walking into the condo. “I felt a chill go through my body at the time.”
After discovering her dead in the bed, he told police he called 911.
Detectives Learn of John Peek’s Affair, Previous Murdered Wife
John told detectives that Kasi had been more eager to reconcile than he was because he was still carrying on an affair with a woman named Liza Kent.
According to detectives, John was playing both women, telling Kasi there was no one else in his life and assuring Liza he was getting a divorce.
But the real bombshell came at the end of the interview, when John revealed that nearly a decade earlier his common law wife Carol had been brutally murdered alongside her friend in a violent crime that had never been solved. He told detectives he’d “forgot” to mention it earlier, something Waddell described as “the biggest omission i’ve ever had in any investigation I’ve ever done.”
Though John had confided in Kasi about his past, his wife believed it was just a tragic chapter of his life.
What Happened to Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn?
Smyrna detectives, however, weren’t so sure and reached out to Cobb County Police Detective Eddie Herman to learn more about the June 13, 1996 double homicide.
According to Herman, John called on June 14 to report that Carol—a 46-year-old engineer at Lockheed Martin—had never come home after having dinner with her friend Maggie. John was concerned that she may have been in an accident, but there were no reports of any accidents involving her dark blue Camry and her car was not at the restaurant.
Though John initially claimed he didn’t know Maggie’s address, her family later told investigators he’d done repair work for her at the house in the past and knew where the 64-year-old lived.
Detectives were able to get the address from Lockheed Martin, where Maggie had worked before her retirement, and discovered Carol’s car still sitting in the driveway.
Inside, they found a gruesome scene. Carol was lying on the floor by the dining room table, while Maggie’s body was found in a bedroom. Both women had been beaten to death.
“It was awful,” Cobb County Detective Richard Peluso remembered of the “savage” attack. “It was definitely a lot of trauma.”
Police Suspect Carol Marlin Was Targeted
After noticing that valuables were still in the home, detectives concluded it had more likely been a targeted attack than a robbery gone wrong.
“Looking at the injuries, particularly after the medical examiner got on the scene and we got a better look at Carol Marlin. She was the focus,” Herman said. “Whoever did this, it was overkill with Carol Marlin.”
John told detectives he couldn’t imagine who would have wanted to hurt Carol.
One clue was found in Maggie’s hand. The former secretary was clutching an invoice from Lockheed Martin signed by Barry Webb.
Barry had once been close friends with Carol and John and told detectives that it wasn’t his handwriting on the paper. He also told police the same night Carol went missing that an intruder tried to break into his house.
When he confronted the man—he believed to be John—he ran off into the night. John called him later and apologized, claiming he had been looking for Carol.
Carol’s sister Susie Suttom also told investigators that she believed John was cheating on Carol, noting that he loved getting attention from women.
Though detectives suspected John had been involved in the murders—and may have been trying to plant evidence at Barry’s house the night of the crime—they had nothing to definitively tie him to the case.
It went cold for years, as John cashed in on Carol’s $700,000 life insurance policy and began a new life with Kasi.
Who Killed Kasi Peek, Maggie Ginn and Carol Marlin?
Now, investigators were trying to piece together Kasi’s murder. They got some help from Kasi’s sister Jaquidon Kruger who agreed—along with her husband—to record a conversation with John about Kasi’s death.
“Two dead wives, two dead wives John,” Jaquidon said at one point in the conversation. “You know I never thought there was anything suspicious about Carol, but there’s something damn suspicious about Kasi’s murder.”
Still, John continued to insist he had nothing to do with either crime.
“I mean Jaquidon, I love this woman. I still love this woman,” he said. “I didn’t kill her.”
As prosecutors took a fresh look at both cases, they decided the circumstantial evidence was strongest against John in Maggie and Carol’s murder and arrested him two weeks after Kasi’s death.
Meanwhile, hoping to keep John from collecting a life insurance payout from Kasi’s death, Jaquidon filed a civil lawsuit against him, earning access to his financial documents in the process.
Kasi had been considering canceling her life insurance policy at the insistence of her sister, but they discovered that John had been making extra payments to keep the policy going ahead of her death. Authorities also learned that John stood to benefit from personal property, joint bank accounts and retirement accounts the couple had shared.
Prosecutors believed John killed Kasi because he wanted access to the money before a divorce could go through.
“He has no empathy. He has no caring,” Susie said. “He’s going to trick you into thinking he loves you and he doesn’t. It’s all about how can you benefit him?”
Given the new evidence, John was also charged with Kasi’s murder.
He agreed to plead guilty to the murders in 2007 in exchange for prosecutors removing the possibility of the death penalty.